 | ||
There are twelve towns in Luxembourg, as defined by statute. Despite the status as towns, they are not all contiguous urbanised areas. They are similar to communes, but have been given a separate legal status. There is a technical difference between the status of commune and towns, but this is limited in practicality. One difference is that échevins in towns are formally appointed by the Grand Duke, whereas échevins for other communes are appointed by the Minister for the Interior.
Contents
Terminology
The Luxembourgish word Stad (plural: Stied) may be translated as "town" or "city". However, apart from the capital, Luxembourg, most of the Stiede are not large enough to be considered cities.
History
Historically, this status was derived from a town's possession of a town charter, but town rights are now granted and regulated by statute. In the modern era, the status was first conferred on 24 February 1843, when seven of the eight towns that had previously been granted charters were reinstated as towns (Clervaux was not). They were (in the order given in the law): Luxembourg City, Diekirch, Grevenmacher, Echternach, Wiltz, Vianden, and Remich.
For over sixty years, no more towns have been added, but the vast demographic shift during the last part of the nineteenth century made it impossible to leave the arrangements unchanged. Thus, on 29 May 1906, Esch-sur-Alzette was promoted; Esch was followed by Differdange, Dudelange, Ettelbruck, and Rumelange on 4 August 1907. An area of the (now extinct) commune of Hollerich was conferred the title on 7 April 1914, under the title of 'Hollerich-Bonnevoie'; this status was lost when Hollerich was merged into Luxembourg City on 26 March 1920.
The last such statute affecting town status in Luxembourg was the Loi communale du 13 décembre 1988. In the order outlined in that legislation (i.e. alphabetical, except with Luxembourg City first), the twelve communes with town status are: Luxembourg City, Diekirch, Differdange, Dudelange, Echternach, Esch-sur-Alzette, Ettelbruck, Grevenmacher, Remich, Rumelange, Vianden, and Wiltz.
In spite of their town status, several of the municipalities are very small and more like villages than towns. There are also municipalities without town status that have more inhabitants than some of the official towns (especially in the Luxembourg and Red Lands agglomerations, but also elsewhere, such as Mersch). Apart from the capital, Luxembourg, which is a city with over 100,000 inhabitants, the three or five next largest municipalities (Esch-sur-Alzette, Differdange, Dudelange, plus possibly Ettelbruck and Diekirch) are urbanised enough to be described as towns. There is a town planning project in Luxembourg that aims at developing Ettelbruck, Diekirch and four bordering municipalities into a new centre called Nordstad ("North Town") with an expected population of 30,000.